Story by Owen Mandovha, Business Reporter
THE recently-held SADC Summit elevated the country’s economic and industrial agenda while setting the tone for future regional industrialisation.
The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) says the summit provided a key lesson that the region can mobilise its internal resources to industrialise, learning from Zimbabwe’s experience which has thrived without external financing.
“We showed the region that development can be achieved without the support of Brettonwoods institutions because of sanctions, hence this provides a good lesson to our SADC counterparts that we can industrialise with our internal resources as a region,” said ZNCC’s chief executive officer, Mr Christopher Mugaga.
Other analysts weighed in saying the summit was a key opportunity to drive the country’s economic goals.
“This is an excellent time for us to harness our local value chains as we strive to demonstrate our huge industrial capacity to the region,” noted Buy Zimbabwe’s managing director, Mr Alois Burutsa.
An economist, Mr Persistence Gwanyanya said, “The SADC Executive Secretary emphasised that the regional payment is taking place without settlement of the need for foreign currency.”
A construction firm involved in a major SADC roads project said the summit was a revelation for business.
“We were involved in groundbreaking projects that gave us so much experience in employing several young graduates who have grown to become senior project managers,” said Mr Johnson Mikuku of Ncube and Burrow Consulting Engineers.
Zimbabwe will lead the SADC Business Council for the next year, with expectations that it will utilise the position to harness its industrial competitiveness while helping to spearhead the growth of the region’s trade in line with the SADC industrialisation agenda.
